Bank Indonesia, Indonesia's central bank, has ordered 23 banks to cease from dealing with wealthy clients for a month while investigations into the alleged embezzlement at Citibank Indonesia's wealth management unit take place, media reports say.

The order takes effect today and comes several weeks after BI suspended Citibank from seeking new customers for its Citigold premium service amid a police inquiry into its affairs. It has been widely reported over the last weeks that Citi had uncovered suspicious transactions in its local operations although the exact amounts remain unknown.

This newest industry-wide suspension applies to priority clients who have at least $50,000 in savings and high net worth individuals who normally invest at least $1 million.

"BI's ruling will, of course, slow down the momentum in this quarter, but in the long-term sense, the wealth management business is doing well in Indonesia," Piyush Gupta, the chief executive of DBS, told the press in Singapore. DBS is one of the foreign banks that have been trying to expand their wealth management operations in Indonesia.

Apart from the specific suspension, it will be business as usual for all banks' existing customers.